Pritesh Mistry’s The Bio Company uses tomato waste to create eco-friendly bioleather, potentially replacing animal leather.
Shoes and bags made of tomatoes! That is exactly what earned The Bio Company (TBC) Best Innovation in Textile at the PETA Vegan Fashion Awards in 2021.
As bioleather, a sort of leather manufactured from plant materials, becomes more popular, Pritesh Mistry, the 26-year-old creator of The Bio Company, has devised a method to transform tomato waste into trendy items.
Using tomatoes as the major raw material and a technique devoid of polyurethane (PU) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), TBC, under the brand ‘Bioleather’, provides a completely sustainable alternative to leather with the added bonus of not causing harm to any animals.
Why tomatoes?
Mistry explains his choice of fruit by saying, “India, being the second-largest producer of tomatoes with about 44 million tons produced annually, faces the challenge of 30-35% of it going to waste.”
He continues, “Bioleather uses this waste, which is mostly in the form of skin and seeds, as a sustainable raw material.”
Tomatoes are also high in pectin, a naturally occurring polymer that improves strength and flexibility, according to Mistry. They are biodegradable and have a leather-like feel because to their fibrous structure and natural oils.
“By using tomatoes, we tackle food waste and pollution, turning an underutilized by-product into a useful, environmentally friendly material,” he says.
Having graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from Thadomal Shahani Engineering College in Mumbai, Mistry’s journey to produce bioleather from tomatoes began as a senior project that brought him to Kanpur’s tanneries.
Here, he saw directly how the leather tanning industry pollutes the environment. He visited farms at about the same time and witnessed the startling volume of food waste produced.
The bioentrepreneur adds, “These experiences made me realize there had to be a better way—something that addressed both pollution and waste.”
While attending college, Mistry created the Bioleather prototype. “To create something that looked like leather but was completely sustainable and biodegradable, it took months of experimenting with tomato by-products, testing different formulations, and working on the texture and durability,”
explains Mistry.
Both the technology and the associated procedure are patented by TBC. The alt-leather start-up will continue to be at the forefront of creating environmentally sustainable substitutes for conventional leather thanks to this protection, which also helps to preserve its intellectual property.
Natasha Mangwani, founder and CEO of Satuhati, a Toronto-based company, explains that Bioleather, a plant-based leather, stands out for its unique origin: rejected tomatoes.
The product is being used by several sustainable brands in the fashion, accessories, and automotive industries to create jackets, bags, and footwear.
According to Mistry, certain vehicle makers are looking at Bioleather for upholstery and interior design as a sustainable alternative to regular leather.
When asked if his revolutionary goods smell like animal leather, he responds quickly, saying that Bioleather has a nice, neutral perfume that avoids the typical plastic-like or chemical odors associated with synthetic leather.
Currently, TBC produces around 5,000 meters of Bioleather each month at its Surat facility.
“This production capacity is scalable, and as demand increases, we are working to expand our output while ensuring the quality and sustainability of the material remain top priorities,” Mistry tells me.
